'Make a stand for independent, creative film making in a world where the pressures of conformism and commercialism are becoming more powerful every day'
Lindsay Anderson.

Friday, 8 April 2016

45 Years.

Debuting at the 65th Berlin International Film
Festival where it won Charlotte Rampling the Silver Bear for Best Actress and
Tom Courtenay a Silver Bear for Best Actor 45 Years (2015) is directed and
written by Andrew Haigh based on a short story In Another Country by David Constantine. It tells how something as
insignificant as a visit from the postman can alter the perception of happiness
between a retired couple that are about to celebrate 45 years of marriage.

Geoff sets out to translate his letter.

A letter arrives in German from the Swiss authorities revealing
that the body of Geoff Mercer’s (Courtenay) first love Katya, who plunged to
her death on a mountain in 1962 whilst out walking with him, has been found in
a snowmelt due to climate change. This starts a serious of emotional forebodings
in his wife Kate (Rampling) that threaten to fracture their rather tenuous relationship.

Does the Norfolk countryside reflect 45 years of marriage?

A powerfully devastating drama about how life in a person’s
dotage, and one that has relied on a good relationship, even if it’s not quite
what it seems, can change, especially when you reach a point in life where it
probable better not to think to deeply into that relationship in fear of blemishing
45 years of marriage.

The celebration of a long and 'happy' marriage.

This cracking drama is headed up by very powerful performances
from two veterans whose careers go back for over fifty years both of whom are
expert at conveying their feelings through looks rather than words. The
Director of Photography Loi Crawley, also responsible for the cinematography on
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013),
captures the flat and boring Norfolk countryside that probably reflects the
true relationship between our two retirees. This is the type of movie that is
typically British although it does at times bring to mind the work of filmmaker
Francois Ozon and certainly is a film not to be missed by those of you that
enjoy a subtle underplayed narrative.